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Lexical Peculiarities of Scottish English Lexical Peculiarities of Scottish English Gudurić, Dorijan Undergraduate thesis / Završni rad 2014 Degree Grantor / Ustanova koja je dodijelila akademski / stručni stupanj: Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences / Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Filozofski fakultet Permanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:142:316436 Rights / Prava: In copyright Download date / Datum preuzimanja: 2021-09-29 Repository / Repozitorij: FFOS-repository - Repository of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Osijek Sveučilište J.J. Strossmayera u Osijeku Filozofski fakultet Preddiplomski studij engleskoga jezika i književnosti i mađarskoga jezika i književnosti Dorijan Gudurić Lexical Peculiarities of Scottish English Leksičke osobitosti škotskog engleskog Završni rad BA paper Mentor (akad., Mario Brdar) Osijek, 2014 0. Summary This paper deals with the Scottish language varieties, i.e. Scots (SC), Scottish English (SE) and Scottish Standard English (SSE). The focus of the paper is on the lexis of Scots and Scottish Standard English. The paper offers a large selection of SC (and SE, SSE as necessary) vocabulary. In order to clearly understand the formation of SC, SE and SSE vocabulary, the paper firstly and at some points thoroughly traces down the history and the development of languages and varieties that were or still are present in the Scottish region. After presenting the historical background and the development, the paper defines all three varieties, namely SC, SE and SSE. Each variety is also placed in the present-day context, hence showing today’s characteristics and peculiarities of a variety in question. In the end, the paper is focused on the future of the most distinct variety of Old English origin – Scots. Key words: Scots, Scottish English, Scottish Standard English, lexis, varieties Contents List of figures……………………………………………………………………………page iii 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….......1 2. Historical Background and Development of Scottish Varieties…………………………1 2.1 Pre-Anglian Scotland 2.2 Anglian Scotland 2.3 The Arrival of Vikings 2.4 Norman French Influence and Consequences 2.5 From Inglis to Middle Scots 2.6 Anglicization 2.7 Scots from the Beginning of the Revival and Onward 2.8 The Influences of Scots from the Seventeenth Century Onwards 3. Other Present-day Scottish Varieties……………………………………………………..9 3.1 Scottish English 4. Concerning Scots………………………………………………………………………….10 4.1 Scots 4.2 Problems Concerning Scots 4.3 Scots – a Separate Language or Autonomy Lost? 5. Lexis………………………………………………………………………………………..12 5.1 Scots Lexis 5.2 Scottish Standard English Lexis 6. Scots – Today & Tomorrow……………………………………………………………...20 References…………………………………………………………………………………….21 Figures 2.1 The Indo-European Languages (from Hogg, Denison, 2006; p. 5) 2.2 Old English dialects (from Knowels, 1997; p. 35) 3.1 The Scottish English linguistic continuum 4.1 Map of the Main Scots Dialects (Scots Language Centre, Facebook group; accessed 2014) 1. Introduction A visitor to Scotland may be aware of a really different language present in the Scottish Highlands, a language not of Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, i.e. Scottish Gaelic. Nonetheless, anybody visiting Scottish lowlands would surely notice that the English language even there sounds at least quite different, if not clearly distinct from English heard in the southern parts of Britain. However, this may lead them to the conclusion that the language spoken there is nothing more but a dialect of the present-day English. In this they would be quite wrong (Kirkpatrick, 2006), as historically it can be proven false. It is true that “Scotland” speaks English; but “Scotland” also speaks Scots, counting about 1.5 million Scots speakers (results from a survey conducted in 2013). Scots originated from Old English (just as English-English varieties) and there were times in its lifespan when it was influenced, but there were also times when it was influential. Numerous Scots words can be found in today’s standard English (and even in some other World Englishes), but especially in Standard Scottish English, and of course Scottish English in general. 2.0 Historical Background and Development of Scottish Varieties 2.1 Pre-Anglian Scotland Before the arrival of Angles to the present day Scottish-English border in the early sixth century and the foundation of the Kingdom of Bernicia, the area of Scotland had already been inhabited. At the beginning of fifth century Celtic speakers occupied all parts of Britain (Hogg, Denison, 2006). Language spoken throughout Scotland at that time was Scots Gaelic (Figure 2.1). Naturally, Anglian invaders brought their own, Germanic language with them. The conquest saw an overwhelmingly rapid replacement or absorption of the existing Celtic linguistic community by the newly arrived Germanic speakers (Hogg, Denison, 2006); the conquest also pushed the Celtic people to other parts of Britain. Scots, previously mentioned in the introduction, has its roots exactly in Anglo-Saxon just as English (sometimes Anglo- Saxons is simply referred to as English (Knowels, 1997), this however is not an entirely correct usage of the concepts). In linguistic terms, obvious Celtic influence on English was minimal (if perhaps slightly more influential on Scottish variety), except for place- and river- names (Hogg, Denison, 2006). However, recent work has revived the suggestion that Celtic may have had considerable effect on low-status, spoken varieties of Old English, effects which only became evident in the morphology and syntax of written English after the Old English period (Hogg, Denison, 2006). Scottish Gaelic, which belongs to a Celtic branch, is still spoken in Scottish Highlands. Figure 2.1 The Indo-European Languages (Hogg, Denison, 2006; p. 5) 2.2 Anglian Scotland Later, the Kingdom of Bernicia (and Deira) was subsumed into the Kingdom of Northumbria (Higham, 1968; qtd. in Knowels, 1997). Northumbria stretched from southern Scotland to England (north of the Humber). It is good to keep in mind that there was no standard language in today’s sense but rather a number of dialects, which in relation to their prestige and in accordance with the ‘rule of homogeneity in speech’ spread across the kingdom. The dialects of Anglo-Saxon are conventionally classified by kingdom: Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon and Kentish (Figure 2.2). The northern dialects, Northumbrian and Mercian, are usually grouped together under the name Anglian (Knowels, 1997). All four dialects belong to what we term as Old English (OE). Figure 2.2 Old English dialects (Knowels, 1997; p. 35) 2.3 The Arrival of Vikings In the eighth century northern and western isles of Scotland became Viking targets (as well as England). Vikings are sometimes also called Norsemen (or ‘Northmen’), Danes or Scandinavians. The generic term for their language is Old Norse (ON) (Knowels, 1997), which belongs to Germanic branch of Indo-European, just as Anglo-Saxon. In fact, the languages of Anglo-Saxons and Vikings were cognate languages and were mutually comprehensible (Douglas; Kachru, Kachru, Nelson, 2006). Vikings eventually settled in Orkney and Shetland, bequeathing the variety of ON called Norn to the islands, where it was spoken until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, respectively (Douglas; Kachru, Kachru, Nelson, 2006). Orkney and Shetland remained under Norwegian control until they were pledged to Scotland in the 1460s, and the legal right of Norway was still recognized in 1667 (Geipel, 1971; qtd. in Knowels, 1997). The last document written in ON in Shetland dates from 1607 and even during 1890s traces of ON were found in Shetland, and there were people who remembered that language being spoken there (Knowels 1997). ON had significant influence on English in general, but it had even stronger legacy in Scotland than in England, and many present day Scots words were originally ON loanwords and still have cognates in the Scandinavian languages (Douglas; Kachru, Kachru, Nelson, 2006). A new language was formed in this period, which we call Anglo-Scandinavian. Anglo-Scandinavian is often seen as a creole, as it was developed by mixing Anglian and Scandinavian. 2.4 Norman French Influence and Consequences After Scandinavian influence, Norman French had a profound influence on English. In order to better understand events and the situation in Scotland it is good to view the situation in England. The first noteworthy influences of Norman French on English took place when Edward the Confessor, who was half Norman, came to the throne in 1042. As Denison and Hogg write, he was a harbinger of Norman French influence. He made Norman French influence possible through politics, placing Frenchmen on influential positions and important public functions, such as bishops for example. The second noteworthy event was The Norman Conquest in 1066 and the coming of William of Normandy to the throne. William unscrupulously began the redistribution of land to the Normans as well as appointing Norman bishops. Unlike the Scandinavians, the Norman French came as a superordinate power (Hogg, Denison, 2006). For some centuries, English ceased to be the language of government, and there was no such thing as a national, standard literary English; and when English did once again become a major literary language across the whole country it had changed a good deal under the influence of the conquerors (Barber, Beal, Shaw, 2009). It is good to note that Norman ancestors were Vikings, who occupied parts of northern France, but eventually their Scandinavian speech was replaced with French. Although in England the aristocracy spoke French, lower classes continued using English. This was recorded in the Chronicle of Robert Gloucester (Barber, Beal, Shaw, 2009): Tus com, lo, Engelond in-to Normandies hond: And te Normans ne coute speke to bote hor owe speche, And speke French as hii dude atom, and hor children dude also teche, So tat heiemen of tis lond, tat of hor blod come, Holdet alle tulke speche tat hii of hom nom; Vor bote a man conne Frenss me telt of him lute.
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